How many unbundled lines are there in Europe?

The slow process of unbundling the local loop is not unique to the UK - less than one in 10,000 telephone lines across Europe have been wrested away from incumbent telcos by rival operators, according to a new report.

The European Union has been trying to promote competitive telecoms services by getting the incumbents to open their local exchanges to rival companies, but has enjoyed very limited success.

Operators who take advantage of local loop unbundling (LLU) could offer any telecoms service they like, but it's broadband internet access which has attracted the most attention - and has so far been the biggest failure.

Only Germany, with 623,000 unbundled local loops, and Denmark, with 40,000, save the continent from total humiliation.

Britain has "about 150" unbundled lines, according to BT, with 400 in France and just 10 in Spain, according to the report from the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA).

Even in Germany, which has a head start of almost three years on the UK, only 70,000 of the unbundled lines are actually for broadband internet.

John Dickie, head of regulatory affairs at the ECTA, said: "In the short term, I think physical LLU is not going to achieve a great deal."

In the short term, with financial markets extremely reluctant to invest in telecoms projects, the key to a more competitive market for broadband will be "an effective range of competitive wholesale and interconnect products for rival operators".

For the wholesale product, a company such as Freeserve or AOL would use BT's equipment to supply a broadband connection, which it sells under its own label with its own marketing, sales and customer support.

Interconnect is a half-way stage between the two, which allows a company to use BT's exchange equipment, but connects the internet traffic to its own network at various different points. Oftel is currently preparing a report on interconnect products for the UK.

In the long term, though, Dickie believes full-scale LLU is still viable if the incumbent operators such as BT cooperate.

He said: "The biggest problem LLU operators face is uncertainty, and we have got to get that swept away. If we get the incumbents like BT to see the LLUs as customers we could see some progress in a couple of years when financial markets start to pick up."